This Black Hole Jet Is So Powerful, It’s Shutting Down an Entire Galaxy
The Daily Galaxy • • science
Key Points:
- A supermassive black hole in galaxy VV 340a is launching a precessing, spiraling jet of gas that disrupts cold gas clouds, potentially halting star formation by stripping the galaxy of star-forming material.
- The jet's wobbling motion sweeps out a cone-shaped, helical path, allowing it to heat and ionize gas across vast regions far beyond the galactic center, a phenomenon observed for the first time at this scale in a disk galaxy.
- Researchers measured a significant gas outflow rate of about 19.4 solar masses per year, with the ejected gas being unusually hot and ionized, extending coronal line gas far into the galaxy rather than being confined near the black hole.
- The
